There's been a lot going on in U.S. speed skating since the Vancouver Olympics in 2010, but don't worry. We're here to get you caught up.

In 2011, a member of the short-track team vandalized an opponent's skates and was later suspended, along with the team's head coach. After this, the short track speed-skaters split into two rival factions that barely speak, much less train together. Last December, on the way back from an international event in Japan, one clique ditched the other during a layover, hopping an earlier flight to Salt Lake City while the other group was grabbing a bite. The U.S. Olympic Committee nearly dissolved the national federation for chronic mismanagement.

All this conflict doesn't seem to be making the team any better: At this year's World Championships, U.S. speed skaters won three medals, down from nine in 2011.

Two months out from the Sochi Games, U.S. Speed Skating is hard at work trying to patch things up. Last March it hired a new president, former Olympic speed skater Mike Plant, who rewrote the bylaws and shifted power from the board to paid staff. Plant, a longtime Atlanta Braves executive, also eliminated several committees and wrote a five-year strategic plan, among other things.

ENLARGE

Heather Richardson leads the overall World Cup standings in the 1,000-meters.
Bongarts/Getty Images

While none of this sounds especially sexy, there's a lot riding on the outcome. Speed skating has long been America's strongest winter sport. In Vancouver, 10 of Team USA's world-leading 37 medals (27%) came in speed skating. Of America's 256 all-time medals in the Winter Olympics, speed skating has provided 85—about a third. Without a strong showing in the sport, the U.S. is unlikely to win the medal race in Sochi.

In other words, Team USA is at the mercy of a fringe sport in the U.S. that has only about 2,000 participants of all ages and only a few world-class skating ovals. "We've always had great champions come out of a very small talent pool," Plant said in an interview.

The rivalries on the U.S. team reached a crescendo in September 2012 after 19 short track skaters accused head coach Jae Su Chun of mental and physical abuse. Around the same time, skater Simon Cho said it was on orders from Chun that Cho had ruined the blades of a Canadian opponent's skates minutes before a 2011 competition.

U.S. Speedskating put Chun on leave while it investigated the allegations. It found no pattern of abuse by Chun, and insufficient evidence that he told Cho to sabotage the competition. But the organization did conclude Chun was aware of the sabotage and didn't report it. The international speedskating governing body suspended Cho and Chun through the Sochi Olympics and beyond. Both Cho and Chun said in interviews that they made mistakes and accepted their punishments.

Chun's suspension cleaved the ranks of the country's short-track skaters in two. Pro-Chun skaters accused the anti-Chun faction of whining about his tough tactics. Some accused Cho of lying to get the coach sacked. "That's kind of harsh, but that's how I feel," said John-Henry Krueger.

Some pro-Chun skaters also didn't like Chun's replacement, Canadian Stephen Gough, saying he favored a more straight-skating posture to Chun's compact, chest-close-to-the ice Korean style. Starting last December, Krueger and several other American skaters left the free National Racing program to pay $1,000 a month to train with Chun, who started something called the Salt Lake International squad. Skater Jessica Smith dug into her savings to pay the fees, while Keith Carroll had to take a full-time job at a local Target. "I'm going to have to do what it takes to get there," Smith said of Sochi.

This dedication to their coach has created some funny scenes. These skaters train four days a week on the U.S. Olympic Oval, but spend the other three at a municipal rink. At races they trudge into the stands to talk to Chun, who has to buy a ticket.

But it also has more-serious consequences: A lack of communication between the rival factions recently helped doom the women's relay team. It had two members from the National Racing Program, Alyson Dudek and Emily Scott, and two from Salt Lake International, Smith and Lana Gehring. In a relay, one skater races while the other three skate on the perimeter of the rink. A skater tags out by literally pushing the new skater ahead of them. The problem: to win you have to talk, and Smith said the four skaters until recently did little of that.

The result: last month they failed to qualify a relay team for Sochi for the first time since short track entered the Olympics in 1992. (Poor management at the federation also contributed to the bad showing of the long-track team at the World Championships).

Nevertheless, there are reasons for hope. The long-track team, which is unified, has two members—Heather Richardson and Brittany Bowe—who rank first and second in the overall World Cup standings in the 1,000-meters. "Fortunately a lot of what has been happening has been on short track side and in the office," Bowe said.

Brian Hansen, a silver medalist in Vancouver, downplayed speculation that U.S. speed skaters will bomb out in Sochi. He said the northern European skaters shine between Olympics because they hail from countries where speed skating champions are true celebrities. For Americans, speed skating is a "once every four year deal," Hansen said. "When it comes to the Olympics people will get ready for it."

Some U.S. speedskaters see benefits in adversity, including the suspicion they've faced about skate tampering. "The eyes were upon us," said 2010 relay bronze medalist Travis Jayner of the past year's competitions. All the controversy has steeled the U.S. team, Jayner argues. "If we can perform at this high level under these clouds of doubt and this scrutiny we will be able to deal with anything," he said.

Still, the costs have been steep. "All the publicity has been nothing but negative," said Richardson, a bronze medalist in the 1,000 meters at the 2011 World Single Distance Championships. "That has taken a lot of time away from administrators when they could have been finding sponsors and help."

The federation has an annual budget of about $4.5 million, but about 75% comes from USOC grants and membership dues. Sponsorships, broadcasting and gifts will bring in only about $1 million this year.

Under Plant, the speedskating federation hopes to identify top talent at younger ages and provide the money needed for them to flourish. But it acknowledges that plan might not bear Olympic fruit before the 2018 Games.

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